An Inside Look At The Rising Freedom Tower

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The Freedom Tower is rising a story a week.

Currently, One World Trade Center stands at 76 stories making it the tallest building in Lower Manhattan.

Photo Gallery: Inside The Freedom Tower

"When you look in there, you're not looking at just a bunch of steel and columns, you're looking at art," iron worker Eric Brown said. "I was already retired so I came back to work just to do this. It's never just a job when you're doing a project like this."

1010 WINS' Al Jones reports: Reaching For The Sky

"I was down here when they came and I've been working in all these buildings so I'm pretty proud to be here," another hardhat said.

On Wednesday, 1010 WINS' Al Jones rode the metal construction elevator on the outside skin of the skyscraper up to the 70th floor to get a tour of the tower.

The tower will be over 80 stories by next month's 9/11 ceremony.

Both President Barack Obama and former president George W. Bush will be at this year's ceremony as well as former mayor Rudy Giuliani and other dignitaries.

Progress is also continuing at the National September 11th Memorial and Museum.

Last month, a 20-foot tall cross that was found by a construction worker standing upright in the rubble of the Twin Towers was moved from St. Peter's Church to the plaza.

A fire truck used during the World Trade Center evacuation after the September 11th attacks was also returned to Ground Zero. Eleven firefighters on the truck were killed when the towers collapsed.

The memorial plaza can comfortably hold about 1,500 people at a time and officially opens to the public on September 12.

Are you planning on visiting the new 9/11 memorial? Let us know in our comments section below…